1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet conveying apparatus and an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to a configuration for alleviating a bumping noise generated between a sheet and an inner guide member of a sheet conveying path when the sheet passes through the curved sheet conveying path.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, in an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet such as a recording sheet using an electrophotographic system, an image is obtained by transferring a toner image (visible image) carried on a photosensitive drum or a transfer body onto a sheet such as plain paper conveyed from a sheet cassette. In such an image forming apparatus of the related art, the direction of a leading end of the sheet may be rotated at a slight angle with respect to a sheet conveyance direction, that is, skew feeding may occur in the sheet during a feeding operation for feeding the sheet from the sheet cassette or during the conveyance of the sheet. If such skew feeding occurs in the sheet, the image formed on the sheet through a transfer process and a fixing process is curved relative to the sheet.
In this regard, in the image forming apparatus of the related art as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 07-117899, the skew feeding of the sheet is corrected using a registration roller so as to improve the accuracy of the image forming position. However, such an image forming apparatus of the related art includes a curved sheet conveying path having an outer guide member and an inner guide member facing each other. In addition, an intermediate conveying roller and a registration roller are arranged in the sheet conveying path to convey the sheet fed from the feeding roller.
Here, in a case where the sheet conveyance velocity of the intermediate conveying roller is set to be slightly slower than that of the registration roller, the sheet is pressed against the inner guide member and stretchingly conveyed while the sheet is nipped by both the registration roller and the intermediate conveying roller. As a result, the conveyance resistance of the sheet increases, and the sheet conveyance accuracy of the registration roller is degraded.
In this regard, in the related art, the sheet conveyance velocity of the intermediate conveying roller is set to be slightly faster than that of the registration roller. With such a velocity relationship between two rollers, the sheet is conveyed to the outer guide member in a bent state without being pressed against the inner guide member while the sheet is nipped by both the registration roller and the intermediate conveying roller. Since the sheet is conveyed without being pressed against the inner guide member, the conveyance resistance to the sheet is alleviated, and the sheet conveyance accuracy to the registration roller may be improved.
However, in the image forming apparatus of the related art, the sheet is conveyed to the outer guide member in a bent state due to a difference of the sheet conveyance velocity between the registration roller and the intermediate conveying roller as described above. Here, if the sheet is conveyed in this manner, the sheet is conveyed only by the registration roller as soon as the trailing end of the sheet passes through the nip of the intermediate conveying roller.
However, if the sheet is conveyed only by the registration roller, the sheet bent toward the outer guide member rapidly approaches the inner guide member and bumps against the inner guide member, resulting in a bumping noise.
In this manner, if the sheet conveyance velocity of the intermediate conveying roller is set to be slightly faster than that of the registration roller to increase a sheet conveyance velocity in the registration roller, the sheet bumps against the inner guide member after the trailing end of the sheet passes through the nip of the intermediate conveying roller. As a result, a bumping noise is generated.
In this regard, the invention has been made to address such problems and provides a sheet conveying apparatus and an image forming apparatus capable of alleviating the bumping noise generated between the sheet and the inner guide member when the sheet passes through the curved sheet conveying path.